/ dissertation help on effects of OAA on behaviour

Hi I am doing teacher traing at the moment and am thinking of doig my dissertation on how outdoor and adventurous activities can be used to improve behaviour in pupils
If anyone has any comments, thoughts, done anything similar, can recommend some decent research etc it would be great to hears from you
Cheer. rob

Not sure how I can help, however this has to be the first time someone has come on here with a hypothesis that actually makes sense for a dissertation! I hope you are able to pull something together that helps.

Some indoor wall instructors work with naughty kids (there's probably a politically correct term for them) in exactly the way you describe - you may want to contact them. They in turn might be able to put you in contact with schools who use them.

Hi, I used to take autistic kids and adults to an indoor climbing wall. Climbing had a noticable effect in a number of areas. Climbing ticks a number of necessary boxes to make an activity make sense and autism specific - colour-coded routes , clear start and finishes, sensory (tactile, proprieception), clear and simple comunication used. Also all the usual effects on trust, confidence and self efficacy. Swimming and country walks were other activities that most used to enjoy,

I'm presently working with young adults and have just got back off an adventure activity week in Llanberis. We did coasteering, kayaking, mountain biking and got Snowdon in. This has had a noticable effect on the mental health of one particular young person where his medication was failing him.

In reply to bigrob:
Taking the bad boys into the outdoors is trendy but it's very difficult to prove beneficial effects. Boxall Profiling has been used for a while now but even that just measures the benefits of small group activities (usually always positive), rather than outdoor activities specifically.
Cost and litigation are the biggest barriers to outdoor learning for schools. Climbing takes a lot of staffing and expertise so is pretty likely to finish up as just a visit to a climbing wall.
In my experience, Behaviour support is beginning to develop along the lines of nurture groups rather than seeing the outdoors as the answer to everything....

In reply to bigrob:
I have worked in schools and outdoor centre for a few years now and have always been involved in taking pupils climbing and biking. I believe that these activities can have a beneficial affect on behaviour. No firm data but anecdotally if you take a young person out of they're comfort zone they can respond better to adults as they are worried/ want to do the best they can so they do not lose face ( I am generally talking about the more behaviourally challenged pupils here). Of course this still relies on the relationships built between the instructor/teacher and the pupil, there has to be trust and a mutual respect often goes down well.

Some schools I have worked in have used these types of activities as carrots for the pupils to earn throughout the week, having a trip out on the Friday.

I use to take kids from the "residential school for disturbed adolescents" I used to work at, out climbing and camping. It had sod all effect on their behaviour, except when they were high off the ground, and I was holding the other end of the rope.

Isn’t this one of those “nice ideas” that has never really been shown to work?

First you need to refine/identify what you mean by young people with challenging behaviour. Risk factors and behaviour management techniques for young people who have autism are very different from those used with young people who have committed offences for example.

Secondly, I would be very sceptical of any study/organisation/person that categorically states that they can prove their intervention had a life changing impact on a young person. For example, any organisation which claims to reduce reoffending rates I would ask 'how do you know?'. Young people have many different services and influences on their lives from youth offending teams and social services to family friends, even television. you can not scientifically prove that you are the one thing that has stopped them reoffending.

So, look at risk factors for behaviour management and theories of change. in offending behaviour look up disistance theory, for autism speak to specialists about communication styles etc. It is possible to prove that interventions have increased someone's self efficacy (through observation and testimonial evidence) or educational attainment (if they gain new skills or even a qualification) which can contribute to improved outcomes for young people.

This approach also gets round post intervention tracking which has confidentiality, safeguarding and logistical/paperwork issues.

OK, I think that's enough waffle! I hope some of it makes sense! Which uni are you at? I'm not trying to put you off the work (think it can be brilliant) or the study, just trying to stop you falling into a hole that I've seen many others end up in.

Sounds like a good choice of study.
I work in a BESD school and my role is based around providing all kids with oaa. I also run a forest school programme for the younger years in school based around risk taking and promotes experiential learning through risk.
We try to measure the impact of these through assessing the kids behaviour reports etc and class reports before, during, after and then at varying times post the experience.
If you want to measure it behaviour reports could be a good start, as someone has said above all schools are concerned with cost and if you were able to offer a set package to a school on the cheap, then use them for results you'd probably get it.
Lots of schools will measure behaviour and some even have programmes that's measure self esteem as well, if they don't have this you can just make up questions they can answer about their perception of them self.
Hope this is of some help, good luck,
Ollie.

talk to manchester city college, they run (or used to when I worked for them 12 years ago) courses for kids with learning difficulties which included a weekly outdoor education day, it was quite amazing to see how the kids developed self confidence and learnt to work together and behave responsably (mostly ;-D) on this. A guy called simon used to run the course, even if they no longer run the course they could probably refer you to simon

Any outdoor education centre run by an LEA or as a social enterprise would welcome a study which aimed to define the obvious but often intangible/unmeasured benefits of outdoor ed. I could suggest one that I have worked with here in Scotland, but any would do. Speak to the centre, review activities, speak to kids, speak to schools, questionnairs etc - it could be of value in helping an important but under-pressure arm of education to survive.

Well I suspect it was a bit more constructive than people just asserting from their own anecdotal. Don't dent the ambition! No-one seems to have suggested ,uch else so far. What's so hard about speaking to a centre and couple of client schools?

I am part academic part practitioner based in the arts not sport but a lot of the theories and principals are the same. It's great to see someone interrogating the ethics and ethos of what they do rather than just cracking on blindly.